Why is it that songs are so important to us as the people of God? Here, in this passage, we see a scene almost out of High School Musical or Grease or something like that where Israel breaks out into song after a battle victory. I always find musicals somewhat silly in that people just all of a sudden break out into song as if it is like the most normal thing in the world to do. Deborah, in Glee fashion, breaks out into song here in celebration of a mighty victory that ends 20 years of oppression of certain of the tribes of Israel.

It got me to thinking about the purpose of songs in musicals and in the Judeo/Christian tradition. In musicals, besides giving songwriters an avenue to get paid, songs break out to emphasize a point in the pathos of the story of the musical. A key issue in the life of one of the characters is brought to the forefront of the audience’s mind through song. It is the same with song in our faith. Songs were sung in the Old Testament to emphasize and memorialize what God had done for Israel. It was a way to preserve the oral traditions concerning the historical highlights of Israel’s history. It is the same today.

We have many great songs today that remind us of the greatness of our God and why we should believe in and trust Him. I have been a big Jesus Culture fan for much of this decade but here lately I have tended toward Elevation Worship. The album they released awhile back, “There Is a Cloud”, is my favorite album right now. The songs on the album are all great and I can listen to the whole album at least twice back to back as Elena and I take long trips in the car. The album title and the basic tenor of all the songs is based on the story of Elijah and his prayers for rain after it had been dry in Israel for three years and then he sees a cloud forming in the distance. That cloud is the hope of God. The idea of the songs is with God we can conquer any circumstances and as well that there are dry seasons in life and we must trust in the Lord to deliver us.

One of my favorite songs from that album is the song entitled, “Overcome”. The lyrics go something like this:

Now the darkness fades
Into new beginnings
As we lift our eyes to a hope beyond

All creation waits
With an expectation
To declare the reign of the Lord our God

We will not be moved
When the earth gives way
For the risen One has overcome

And for every fear
There’s an empty grave
For the risen One has overcome

Now the silence breaks
In the name of Jesus
As the heavens cry let the earth respond

All creation shouts
With a voice of triumph
To declare the reign of the Lord our God

We will not be moved
When the earth gives way
For the risen One has overcome

And for every fear
There’s an empty grave
For the risen One has overcome

He shall reign forever
Strongholds now surrender
For the Lord our God has overcome

Who can be against us?
Jesus our Defender
He is Lord and He has overcome

He shall reign forever
Strongholds now surrender
For the Lord our God has overcome

Who can be against us?
Jesus our Defender
He is Lord and He has overcome!

We will not be moved
When the earth gives way
For the risen One has overcome

And for every fear
There’s an empty grave
For the risen One has overcome

We will not be moved
When the earth gives way
For the risen One has overcome

And for every fear
There’s an empty grave
For the risen One has overcome…

Sometimes, we need to be reminded of the greatness of our God. We get so wrapped up in our own problems. We get so wrapped up in our tunnel vision. We get so wrapped up in trying to control our own lives, even as Christ followers. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of what we believe about God and who He is and who we are in Him through Jesus Christ. This is the God that raised Jesus from the dead. In that fact, we have hope eternal. There is nothing so great that we face that when we trust it to the Lord that we cannot overcome it. What’s the worst that could happen to us? We die and go to heaven. We can overcome through Christ, the victor over sin and death. God’s resolution of our situations may not always look like the way WE want them to but God is greater than we are. His plans are greater than ours. When we trust in the Lord who overcame the grave, we are trusting that His outcome is the one that will benefit us the most. Songs like this remind us that even in our darkest moments, God is working to give us His victory over that which oppresses us.

I could go on and on with songs of hope that have been written in the Christian tradition since the dawn of our faith. The great theological centerpieces of worship that the songs of what we call traditional church music now written back in the 1700’s and 1800’s. These are songs of great hope and wonder at who God is and expound upon why we believe what we believe. The great Negro spirituals of the 1800’s are amazing in their depth and richness of faith in the face of seemingly insurmountable persecution. The camp meeting songs of the 1930’s-1950’s. The campfire songs of the church youth movement of the 1960s. All have evolved now into the music we call modern contemporary Christian music. All of it is the rich tradition of song as the uplifter of the Christian soul. I love modern Christian music and how it reaches people in the music style of our day. All Christian music is adapted to age in which it is written. What we consider traditional church music now was considered radical back in its day. Some of the greatest hymns from the 18th and 19th century were amazing theological treatises set to the music of the day just so as to capture people’s attention with familiar kinds of music so that they would sit and listen to the words and be moved by them. One of the tragedies of modern worship though is that we don’t use these great hymns in their entirety. We may “modern them out” by borrowing lyrics from these as bridges in otherwise modern lyrics of currently written contemporary songs. But we as the modern church do not use these great hymns in whole. It’s just not who we are and would not fit in too well with the style of worship that we have in modern church.

However, that does not stop me from appreciating some of the great hymns of the past. My favorite old, traditional hymn is “How Great Thou Art!” I have already told my wife that although my funeral should have a thoroughly modern worship flare to it, I do want this one traditional hymn sung in its entirety and not modified. You can play it with drums and guitars but the tune and the lyrics are to be left as written. These lyrics are beautiful and I have the version by Carrie Underwood on my playlist. Just love the power of this song and its lyrics:

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And lead me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
[Album version:] Then I shall bow with humble adoration,
[Live version:] Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And then proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Aren’t those lyrics just totally powerful. I am drawn to these words. When sung with power and belief in the words, it is an amazingly moving song. This is why we sing. To move the soul. To honor God for the amazing God that He is. That though He is pure and wondrous and great, He still loves us lowly sinning human beings enough to save us from ourselves through Jesus Christ and through His intervening guidance in our lives. My God, how great you are! We must sing your praises in the temple courts for you are great and you have saved your people. We owe You so much!

Song inspires us to remember what God has done for His people. That’s what Deborah is doing here. Reminding us that it is God who is great not us. It would come across more lyrical I am sure in the original Hebrew, but the feeling is still there. Let’s read her lyrics now as presented in English in Judges 5:1-31:

5 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

2 “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves— praise the Lord!

3 “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to[a] the Lord; I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.

4 “When you, Lord, went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom,the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water.5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths.7 Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.8 God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates,but not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.9 My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord!

10 “You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road,consider 11 the voice of the singers[b] at the watering places. They recite the victories of the Lord, the victories of his villagers in Israel.

“Then the people of the Lord went down to the city gates.12 ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song!Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’

13 “The remnant of the nobles came down; the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.14 Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek; Benjamin was with the people who followed you.From Makir captains came down, from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s[c] staff.15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak, sent under his command into the valley.In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.16 Why did you stay among the sheep pens[d] to hear the whistling for the flocks?In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.

19 “Kings came, they fought, the kings of Canaan fought.At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo, they took no plunder of silver.20 From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.21 The river Kishon swept them away, the age-old river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong!22 Then thundered the horses’ hooves— galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.23 ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Curse its people bitterly,because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’

24 “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.26 Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer.She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.27 At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay.At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

28 “Through the window peered Sisera’s mother; behind the lattice she cried out,‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’29 The wisest of her ladies answer her; indeed, she keeps saying to herself,30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils: a woman or two for each man,colorful garments as plunder for Sisera, colorful garments embroidered,highly embroidered garments for my neck— all this as plunder?’

31 “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.”

Then the land had peace forty years.

Music and singing were an integral part of the Israelite culture. It helped preserve the history of Israel so as to pass it along to the next generation but the main point of it all was to give glory to God. This is a victory song of God’s deliverance.

May we all just break out into song when we think of what God has done for us. He has delivered us from many dangers, toils, and snares. He has given us eternal security through our acceptance of the grace of Jesus Christ. We can overcome all things in Christ. We can do all things in Christ who strengthens our every step in times of trouble. Up from the grave He arose with the mighty triumph o’er his foes. He arose! He arose! What can hurt us if God is with us! For whatever you are going through He is Lord and He will overcome. I end with part of the song, Do It Again, by Elevation Worship:

I know the night won’t last
Your Word will come to pass
My heart will sing Your praise again
Jesus You’re still enough
Keep me within Your love
My heart will sing Your praise again